Body

A major challenge in the field of neurodegeneration is the unclear understanding of neuronal dysfunction. Elucidation of these patho-mechanisms could result in the identification of novel therapeutic targets. In this article, Bell et al. present an exhaustive literature review highlighting the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) kinase PERK as a crucial contributor to systemic and neurodegenerative disorders. While the impact of PERK in various systemic diseases has been well characterized, its involvement in neurodegeneration is established to a lesser extent.

A team of scientists including a Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) research associate announced the discovery of a new species of pale-gold colored frog from the cloud forests of the high Andes in Colombia. Its name, Pristimantis dorado, commemorates both its color (dorado means 'golden' in Spanish) and El Dorado, a mythical city of gold eagerly sought for centuries by Spanish conquistadores in South America.

Recent medical advances have resulted in increased survival of children with complex medical conditions (CMC), such as cerebral palsy, complex chromosomal anomalies, major congenital heart diseases and respiratory disease.

Healthcare services for this population are complex and include frequent transitions across inpatient, outpatient, subspecialty and community settings with poor coordination of care, contributing to increased hospital use. Quantifying severity of illness and intensity of service needs have typically used taxonomies designed for adult patients.

One in three people world-wide are thought to be infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), but most remain well because their immune system keeps the pathogen in check. HIV infection dramatically increases the risk of Mtb infection turning into active tuberculosis (TB), a life-threatening disease. Exactly how HIV infection affects the immune system's ability to suppress active TB is still poorly understood.

On February 23, President Obama announced plans to close the notorious military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Whether he'll be able to is a hot political question. Now, Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, and James Kraska, professor of law at the U.S. Naval War College, are asking the next question: what to do with Gitmo after the detainees are gone?

Their answer: transform the naval base into a marine research center and international peace park.

Modern Melanesians harbor genetic components passed on from Denisovans, a new study suggests. In the past, ancestors of many modern human populations interbred with other hominin species that have since become extinct, such as the Neandertals and Denisovans. Mapping the gene flow of surviving genetic sequences from these species, as well as other species of hominin, helps shed light on how past interbreeding has affected human evolution.

During gestation, a mother's microbiome shapes the immune system of her offspring, a new study in mice suggests. While it's known that a newborn's gut microbiota can affect its own immune system, the impact of a mother's microbiota on her offspring has largely been unexplored. Here, Mercedes Gomez de Agüero et al. infected the guts of pregnant mice with E.coli engineered to dwindle over time, allowing the mothers to become germ-free again around the time they gave birth.

Spinal cord injuries don't heal like cuts or broken bones. Why? Part of the reason is the formation of scar tissue that acts as both a chemical and physical barrier to nerve regeneration.

One protein, chondroitinase ABC (ChABC for short) is known to break down these scars and let damaged nerve tissue heal. But to be effective, the protein needs to stick around the scar site over a long period of time -- just as long as it takes the damaged nerves to regrow.

Ticks are small blood-feeding arachnids that can transmit diseases amongst animals and humans. Researchers from the French National Institute for Agricultural research, INRA studied pathogen species and bacterial symbionts in tick species Ixodes ricinus. Publishing in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases, their findings showed all ticks contained symbiotic bacterial species and over half were infected with pathogens. The high level of co-infection with multiple pathogens and symbionts has important implications for diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases.

Treatment and prevention of life-threatening infections could be improved by research that reveals how bacteria are kept in check.

Researchers have discovered how the immune system stops bacteria in our gut from leaking into the blood stream and causing body-wide inflammation, such as sepsis.

The study also helps to explain why we do not suffer more infections, despite the vast number of bacteria that are found naturally in our gut.

University of California, Berkeley, biologists have discovered the switch that triggers the power kick sperm use to penetrate and fertilize a human egg, uncovering a possible source of male infertility but also a potential target for contraceptives that work in both men and women.

The archaic Denisovan and Neanderthal DNA that persists in modern individuals from the Pacific islands of Melanesia could be a source of new information about early human history, according to a report published this Thursday in the Early Release edition of Science.

Equally as informative, according to Joshua Akey, a UW Medicine expert on human evolutionary genetics, are regions where DNA from extinct, human-like species has vanished from the genome and has been replaced with sequences unique to people.

Researchers identify molecule needed for sperm activationNIH-funded study could inform development of male contraceptives, infertility treatments

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have discovered the cellular switch that boosts the activity of sperm cells so that they can travel to the egg. The finding may lead to new options for male contraception as well as treatments for infertility resulting from problems with sperm mobility.

BINGHAMTON, NY - Residents of the remote equatorial islands of Melanesia share fragments of genetic code with two extinct human species. That's the key finding of a new study published March 17 in the journal Science.

Toronto - Minority applicants may fare even worse in the resume pile at companies purporting to support diversity than they would at companies that don't make the claim, shows a new study from the University of Toronto.